Rethinking Schools at upcoming SOS Convention
Last summer, the Save Our Schools march brought thousands of teachers, parents, and supporters of public education to Washington, D.C. The march and rally were hopeful signs of pushback against corporate ed reform.
From August 3 to 5, Save Our Schools supporters will gather again in D.C., this time for a "people's convention" focused on giving more shape and substance to the SOS effort. Rethinking Schools will be there, joining longtime friends and advocates for educational justice like Jonathan Kozol, Deborah Meier, Nancy Carlsson-Paige, and many others. We hope you will join us. More info here.
Rethinking Schools editor and parent activist Helen Gym and I will host a workshop session Saturday morning on education activism. We'll share some lessons from Rethinking Schools' 25-year history as a voice for social
SOS Press Release: A Call to Action
*Save Our Schools: A National Call to Action* www.saveourschoolsmarch.org for immediate release *SAVE OUR SCHOOLS ANNOUNCES KEYNOTE SPEAKERS, PANEL LEADERS* *FOR AUGUST 3 -5 WASHINGTON, DC PEOPLES EDUCATION CONVENTION* Organizers of the upcoming Save Our Schools (SOS) “Peoples Education Convention” today unveiled the list of featured speakers for their *August 3 – 5, 2012 *event at *the Marriott Wardman Park* hotel in * Washington, D.C *. event. Keynoters include author *Jonathan Kozol*, MacArthur “genius” award winner *Deborah Meier*, civil rights attorneys *Shanta Driver* and *Ro... more »
Duncan's new tests may be worse than the old ones
Arne Duncan's been telling us for years now, that the only problem with current standardized testing mania is the quality of the tests. So he's put together a consortium of testing experts, using $330 million in stimulus money through the federal Race to the Top competition, to design new "next-generation assessments" intended to measure critical thinking, particularly the critical skills emphasized by the Common Core State Standards. Problem is, some of these new tests are in many ways even worse than the old ones. This according to a survey of "education insiders" due to be pu... more »
Last night's SOS Webinar was great
CTU Pres. Karen Lewis, flanked by Jitu Brown, Rev. Jesse Jackson and Dyett High School student Diamond McCullough at Operation Push Thanks to all who attended our SOS Webinar last night with *Karen Lewis*and *Jitu Brown*. Biggest crowd ever for one of our webinars and the capacity crowd stayed til the very end. Lewis and Brown were over the top. For those who missed it, I'm told you will be able to see it in full on the SOS website in a few days. My next stop is the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) pre-conference in St. Louis where I'm speaking on "The Politics of Lit... more »
Who at CPS leaked the Benn Report and why?
Remember how Rahm's spin machine demanded that teachers hold off on their strike vote until after the release of the fact-finder's report? The implication being that CPS would abide by the report's recommendations for a teacher pay raise. Now the question is, who from CPS leaked parts of the fact-finder's report to the Tribune days before it was supposed to be released, and why? Or let me put it another way. Why, with less than 4 weeks to go before teachers are forced to strike, does Rahm/Brizard seem hell-bent on sabotaging the contract negotiations? This morning's Trib carries ... more »
Despite total focus on testing, CPS scores stay flat
Despite Rahm/Brizard making a total fetish of testing while diverting thousands of hours of classroom time and millions of badly-needed dollars towards test-prep, scores remain flat in CPS elementary schools. In fact during the first year of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s watch scores rose by the smallest margin — only 0.9 of a percentage point (statistically insignificant) — since 2005. Charter schools — whose $76 million planned expansion drew boos and hisses at recent budget hearings — posted increases that were only fractionally better than the district average. Only 17.8 percent of CPS ... more »
WEEKEND QUOTABLES
Jesse Sharkey, CTU vice-president *"We've said to our teachers that we want fair compensation. We've also said we want a better (school) day and we want to make sure class sizes don't spike. (Our members) know that we simply don't have a wage demand." *-- Chicago Tribune Jacky Grimshaw *“If he [Rahm] ignores the community, if he ignores the aldermen, if he continues to be driven by what comes out of his brain and those of his advisors to the exclusion of the community, that’s a problem for him. Then, it becomes a charade that you really don’t want public input.” *-- Sun-Times, "C... more »
Cyber schooling could be one the great scams of our time
New study shows cyber kids falling behind *"Children who enroll in a K12 Inc.cyberschool, who receive full-time instruction in front of a computer instead of in a classroom with a live teacher and other students, are more likely to fall behind in reading and math." *-- Gary Miron, NEPC fellow Two stories on cyber-learning caught my eye this past week. The first had to do with the closing of a privately-run cyber charter school in Pennsylvania, due to financial mismanagement. According to the July 10th Edweek story, the state then issued charters to 4 other new cyber-charters. The ... more »
Romney's version of corporate socialism
Anthony Gardner, writing for Bloomberg, reports that Mitt Romney's specialty during his years at Bain Capital, was privatizing gains and socializing investment losses. *What’s clear from a review of the public record during his management of the private-equity firm Bain Capital from 1985 to 1999 is that Romney was fabulously successful in generating high returns for its investors. He did so, in large part, through heavy use of tax-deductible debt, usually to finance outsized dividends for the firm’s partners and investors. When some of the investments went bad, workers and credit... more »
